Ned Lamont on Jobs

Democratic Challenger

Better training and support for workers: STEM and vo-tech

We must bring our workforce into the 21st century, starting with STEM and coding in K-12, and access to higher education, vo-tech and apprenticeships. That also means bringing the workplace into the 21st century, including paid family leave to
make sure that parents don't have to choose between the child they love and the job they need. It also means a $15 minimum wage, responsibly and over time, so parents can afford to provide for their children without working three jobs.

Source: 2019 State of the State address to Connecticut legislature
, Jan 9, 2019

Invest in infrastructure to create local jobs

LIEBERMAN: Ned’s come out against trade now. He was always for it before. Connecticut benefits from trade. Not everybody does, some people suffer, and we need to help them with trade adjustment assistance. But we do $9 billion worth of exporting from
Connecticut every year. That creates hundreds of thousands of jobs. One quarter of the manufacturing jobs in Connecticut depend on exports. If he thinks he can put a bubble over the US and stop all of that and make more jobs in Connecticut, he’s wrong.

LAMONT: Senator, we just keep exporting jobs. Over the last 18 years, we have lost 40% of our manufacturing jobs and a lot of our defense-related jobs. Going forward, [we should] invest in infrastructure. That’s public transportation. That’s freight.
That’s ports. These are all things necessary to be able to build a base upon which small businesses can grow. We have been losing good-paying jobs in the state, and if Ned Lamont is a US senator, we can turn that around with a long-term strategy.

Our high-skill jobs are being sent overseas

Connecticut has lost 75,000 manufacturing jobs in the last six years, many replaced by retail and service jobs which pay less and have reduced healthcare and pension benefits.
Today, the middle class is getting squeezed and most people living in poverty or near poverty are employed but not earning enough to get by. Many of our high-skill jobs are being sent overseas, drawn by low wages and no benefits.